Kraus Campo is a

roof garden A roof garden is a garden on the roof of a building. Besides the decorative benefit, roof plantings may provide food, temperature control, hydrological benefits, architectural enhancement, habitats or corridors for wildlife, recreational opp ...

and landscape design space in

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Western Pennsylvania, the second-most populous city in Pennsylva ...

. It is located on the roof of the Posner Center on the Carnegie Mellon University campus, between the

College of Fine Arts The School of Fine Arts or College of Fine Arts is the official name or part of the name of several schools of fine arts, often as an academic part of a larger university. These include: The Americas North America *Alabama School of Fin ...

building and Posner Hall. The Campo was designed and created by artist

Mel Bochner Mel Bochner (born 1940) is an American conceptual artist. Bochner received his BFA in 1962 and honorary Doctor of Fine Arts in 2005 from the School of Art at Carnegie Mellon University. He lives in New York City. Life Bochner was born in Pittsbu ...

and landscape architect

Michael Van Valkenburgh Michael Robert Van Valkenburgh (born September 5, 1951) is an American landscape architect and educator. He has worked on a wide variety of projects in the United States, Canada, Korea, and France, including public parks, college campuses, sculp ...

. The Campo consists of orange pathways surrounded by various species of shrubs, a central seating area, and a quotation tiled onto the back wall. It was commissioned by and named after Jill Gansman Kraus, a university trustee, and her husband Peter Kraus. The Campo cost approximately $4 million and was inaugurated in fall 2004. An exhibition at the Miller Gallery displayed working models, unrealized elements and related works by both artists.

Design

The Greek concept of an agora as a marketplace of ideas and the city of

Siena, Italy Siena ( , ; lat, Sena Iulia) is a city in Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the province of Siena. The city is historically linked to commercial and banking activities, having been a major banking center until the 13th and 14th centuri ...

, were the main inspirations for the Campo's design. The center of the garden contains a , tile-covered sculpture shaped like a

French curve A French curve is a template usually made from metal, wood or plastic composed of many different segments of the Euler spiral (aka the clothoid curve). It is used in manual drafting and in fashion design to draw smooth curves of varying radii. ...

. This curve is called the "campo", and is intended to be used as a seating area. The surface of the curve is tiled with random numbers. Shrubbery in the Campo include evergreen boxwoods, azaleas, semi-dwarf red level Japanese barberry,

ilex ''Ilex'' (), or holly, is a genus of over 570 species of flowering plants in the family Aquifoliaceae, and the only living genus in that family. ''Ilex'' has the most species of any woody dioecious angiosperm genus. The species are evergreen o ...

, and ivy. The exposed wall of the GSIA Building (home to the

Tepper School of Business The Tepper School of Business is the business school of Carnegie Mellon University. It is located in the university's campus in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, US. The school offers degrees from the undergraduate through doctoral levels, in addition ...

) was painted blue and has a quotation by

Ludwig Wittgenstein Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein ( ; ; 26 April 1889 – 29 April 1951) was an Austrian-British philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. He is con ...

, displayed with the words in reversed order, in black and white porcelain tiles. The quotation concerns the

arrow of time The arrow of time, also called time's arrow, is the concept positing the "one-way direction" or "asymmetry" of time. It was developed in 1927 by the British astrophysicist Arthur Eddington, and is an unsolved general physics question. This ...

and is displayed as follows: :“.IN WALK THEY DIRECTION THE CHANGED HAVE PEOPLE THAT THAN MORE NO SAID HAVE YOU THAT MIND YOUR IN CLEAR BE SHOULD YOU THEN BUT :LIKE YOU IF THAT IT CALL CAN YOU COURSE OF .DAY ONE BACKWARDS WALKING START SHOULD MEN IF DIRECTION ITS CHANGE WOULD TIME :THIS TO COMES ENTROPY OF LAW THE AND 'TIME OF DIRECTION THE ABOUT SAYS EDDINGTON WHAT”

References

{{coord, 40.44142, -79.94243, type:edu_globe:earth_region:US-PA, display=title Carnegie Mellon University Tourist attractions in Pittsburgh